Kunci Floor Tile Factory, to Know the Production of Classic Floor Tiles

Pathuk area that has been famous for its bakpia (special cake of Yogyakarta) industry that developed since 1920s turns to have other industry that began to grow in the same period. It is Kunci Floor Tile Factory; a factory that was founded on 16 December 1929 and produces classic floor tiles with unique motifs. You will learn how floor tiles as symbol of luxury are produced.

You can reach the factory by walking westwards from Bakpia Pathuk 25 shop. You will see a big plank written "Pabrik Tegel dan Beton Kunci" on the left side of the street signaling that you already come to the factory. In the past, this factory produced concrete, but now it focuses on producing floor tile, a kind of floor tile made from mix of sand and cement ornamented with motifs or plain.

Arriving in the factory that has a wide yard, you will be greeted by a European-style house. It is understandable since the factory was built by two Dutch people living in Indonesia, namely Louis Maria Stacker and Julies Gerrir Corrane. Entering the front part of the factory that used to be named "Firma Tegelfabrik Midden Java", you will see unique floor tiles produced in the early foundation of this factory since those tiles are installed in the guest room.

Entering the interior of the factory, you will directly see the process of floor tiles production done by around 30 people. Until today, the making of the floor tiles is done using the same way as tens years before. In general, production processes include materials sifting, casting, print coloring, preliminary drying, soaking, final drying and packaging. All works are done with simple machineries, thus they rely on workers' skill.

At the far left, you can see casting and printing processes. Even though it seems a simple process, it is actually very sophisticated, since the tile consists of 4 layers, namely matras, kalungan, kancingan and stempel. Workers have to make certain formula for each layer. For matras, for example, the proportion is 7 buckets of sand and 1 bucket of cement, while for stempel it must be added with paint. It becomes more sophisticated when producing motif tiles because they have to make pattern from iron plate first.

Approaching the preliminary drying rack, you can see soaking tub. The tub is used to soak tiles after the preliminary drying. Twenty-four hours soaking is intended to make the pores approximate and to strengthen the structure to avoid fragility. After soaking, the tiles are dried for 4-5 days in a rack on the right of the soaking tub.

To see the result you can go the show room to the east of the production room. There, you can see interesting tiles collection such as the ones with motifs of flower, leaf and batik. There are also tiles that will form certain object (for example butterfly) when combined, thus it's like a puzzle. Many motif tiles produced by this factory decorate the floors of historical buildings such as Yogyakarta Kingdom, Wilis Building and other old buildings.

In addition to enjoying production process, you can also learn the history of this legendary factory when you have a chat with the workers of the owner. On 24 October 1931, an Indonesian named Lim Ing Hwie replaced Julies, while Louis persisted until the end of the Dutch colony. This factory was taken by the state and only was returned to the heirs in 1973.

If you are interested to install the tiles at your home, you can buy from this factory. Plain tiles are sold at IDR 59,000 / m2 while the motif ones in dominant deep colors are sold at IDR 159,000 / m2. Floor tiles are superior to porcelain in that they have pores so that they do not break easily compared to porcelain.